Word of the Day Archive
Friday September 7, 2001
milksop \MILK-sop\ , noun:
An effeminate or weak-minded person; an unmanly man.
But though intelligent and 'good tempered', he was also something of a milksop, unlike his younger brothers who were 'full of courage'.
-- Saul David, Prince of Pleasure
And what a milksop I'll be thought and what a tyrant you'll be thought and how you'll be dreaded accordingly.
-- John Butler Yeats, quoted in W.B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 1 by R. F. Foster
Milksop comes from Middle English, literally a piece of bread sopped in milk.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for milksop
